Cranberry Surprise Pie
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The average rating is 5 (out of 5) hats.
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You can read 3 reader reviews of this recipe.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

A quick, company's-coming pie that makes its own crust and tastes like a macaroon cookie with cranberries. Serve it during the holidays, when cranberries are most available, with a dollop of whipped cream.

In a mixing bowl, cream the remaining 1 cup sugar with the eggs and butter. Stir in the almond extract. Add the flour and mix well. The batter will be thin. Pour over the cranberries.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a tester inserted near the center of the crust comes out clean. Let cool slightly before serving warm, or serve completely cooled, with a dollop of whipped cream on each slice.

Recent Reader Reviews [Add your review]

It's spectacular! My mother used to make this recipe every year to celebrate our Canadian Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. I've continued the custom.

This morning I tried this recipe. I used Carbquik in place of the flour and used 1/2 cup Splenda on the cranberries and the equivalent of 1 cup of sugar (used liquid Stevia) in the batter.

This tastes very good, but I found that the batter did not seep through to the cranberry & almond layer. So when you cut a piece of the pie, the cranberries weren't held in place and came out seperate from the batter part.

Next time, I will slightly stir the batter into the cranberries and almonds. Another possibility would be to use a little less Carbquik, so that the batter is more runny.

I also made it this morning and it is very good. I used the Carbquik also. I think I will add just a little more almond flavoring to it. My mixture was not runny. I used granular measure for measure splenda mixed with brown diabetisweet. Maybe adding some DaVinci's almond or vanilla would make it seep around the berries more.

I'm so glad you ladies tried this..and I agree I will mix in the cranberries..and maybe add some cream. Remember sugar MELTS when you heat it as opposed to Splenda that doesn't melt..I think CQ and almond flour would be good too.. Think I'll try this tomorrow and see what happens..

This sounds so yummy, I want to try this, only problem, dont have any Almonds, do you think it would "taste ok" if I used a 1/2 a cup of either
Hazelnuts or Pecans? If so which ones would you use, I just dont like to have alot of Almonds on hand, have a tendency to want to eat to many of them.
Thanks

I made this on Monday and I used 1/2 cup carbquick and 1/2 cup almond flour. I used a mixture of xylitol and splenda on the sprinkling part and the same mixture for the batter. Since the recipe said the batter was runny (like pancake mix) and mine was quite firm like dumpling mix, I added some cream and some sf vanilla syrup to thin it a bit. I also had to cook it a bit longer due to the extra wet ingredients that I added. Next time I will use all almond flour since I think it was the carbquick that sopped up all the liquid. I tasted wonderful and was almost like a butter cake/cobbler type of consistency. I will definitely make this again. The cranberries popped in my mouth with a wonderful juicy texture.

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Wash the cranberries, leaving some water on them. Combine the cranberries with the almonds in a small bowl. Sprinkle with liquid Splenda equivalent to 1/2 cup sugar. Toss lightly, but thoroughly, to ensure Splenda is evenly distributed among nuts and berries. Turn berries into prepared pie plate.

Combine remaining ingredients in blender container. Blend for 30 seconds; stop blender, scrape down sides and blend 30 more seconds. The batter will be thin. Pour over the cranberries.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a tester inserted near the center of the crust comes out clean. Let cool slightly before serving warm, or serve completely cooled, with a dollop of whipped cream on each slice.

It looks good, but as you can see, we haven't cut into it yet, so I can't yet give a review of the flavor.
I'd read about the batter being thick, so I cut the flour back to 3/4 cup, but to me, it still seemed thick.
Then it occurred to me to add some syrup to thin it down. A quarter-cup was all it took to get a thin
batter that would seep down in between the berries and nuts. I don't know how the high-carb version
would taste, so I can't compare it, but I think I'm going to like this version!

How did your pie turn out Pami? It looks so pretty. Any changes you would make?

We liked it.
The batter went all the way to the bottom of the nuts and berries, which is what I imagine
it does in the high-carb recipe, so there were no separate crust and fruit layers.
(It was more like a berry-filled cake than a pie, which is what I expected.)
Like I said above, I've never had the high-carb version, so I don't know how it compares.
I do plan on making it this way again, though.

I made this in a 9x13 pan. Used only 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) and added some unsweetened coconut to the cranberry and nut mixture and then sprinkled a bit more over the top of the batter before cooking. It is just delicious.

I made Pami's version, with the coconut, for a party yesterday. No one knew it was low carb and everyone thought it was delicious. I used a quiche pan, deeper than a pie plate. I should have spread the batter out more carefully as the middle ended up with more batter than the edges, but it came out fine.

I was desperate to find something for an office party at the hospital tomorrow, so I came a' lookin' here. I used this recipe, tweaking it with some of the suggestions mentioned in this thread. I used 3/4 cup almond flour and 1/4 cup CarbQuik. For pouring over the cranberries, I used mostly Splenda, but a small portion was Xylitol. I added the slivered almonds and some unsweetened coconut to the berries.

To the batter (above mentioned almond flour mixture) I used 3/4 c. butter, Splenda, and then vanilla extract instead of almond extract. (I didn't have any almond extract, or I would have used that.) I also added a little coconut DaVinci's and some Orange DaVinci's syrup to thin it down.

I used a skinny little spoon to stir stuff around, hoping to entice some of the batter to sink to the bottom. I'm just ready to put it in the oven. If the little taste of batter in which I indulged is any indication, these are gonna be great!

If I was going to do anything different, I would have paid more attention to the suggestion to mix the berries with sweetener before putting them in the pan, and then I would have sprinkled the almonds and coconut over the top after the berries were in the pan. As it was, the almonds wanted to clump altogether, and I had a difficult time convincing them to "get out there and mingle."

If I have the ingredients, I'm going to make a low carb pizza for the party, too. I did great last Christmas, but this year I'm struggling with temptation something fierce! I want plenty of food that I can have, since the party is just before I start work and it will be the only dinner I get tomorrow.

Well, back to the kitchen for me! I've got lots to do before I can go to bed.

Okay... ready to review this recipe! WOW! YUM! WOW!!! I cut a tiny corner out to "taste test" and ended up taking a larger piece. I'm not at all sure I will be taking this to the party tomorrow, because suddenly I don't feel very generous. I have a Key Lime Bar mix in the cupboard, and maybe I'll make that tomorrow for everyone else.

If I can get to the store early enough, I may buy more cranberries and some of the other ingredients that I ran out of and make a fresh batch of these for the party. If not, the Key Lime bars go to the party and I'm hoarding these for ME for the holidays!

I've made this twice and love it! I use almond flour and instead of sliced almonds I chop them. I also add a couple of drops of lemon flavored stevia. Most important though is the second time I made it I added the almonds, cranberries and splenda to the batter--it works so much better. My pie looks exactly like Pamis. It's a keeper!

Brendajm, I bought a large bag of cranberries at Thanksgiving and froze the ones I didn't use. I am going to look for another bag, usually the stores have cranberries for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. They freeze beautifully.

I made the original recipe for Thanksgiving and liked it very much. I mistakenly used WPI instead of Carb Quick but it turned out fine. The cranberries and almonds stayed on the bottom but so what? The flavor was good and I have decided to make it again at the family's Christmas gathering, and this time I'll use CQ. I will also stir up the berries and almonds a bit so the surface of the baked product will show the pretty red berries instead of just the browned batter.

This is so good. I made Pami's version with the almond syrup.I added coconut with the berries and nuts and 1/2 almond flour half Carbalose plus a mix of about 4 sweetners. This is so quick and easy. I think it will be great in the summer with blueberries and or raspberries. A keeper for sure

Girls..I'm so glad that you are experimenting with this..I haven't made it yet..LOL..but
I probably will and do the almond flour/Carbquick combo..and need to pick up those
bags of cranberries and pop them in the freezer..

Something about the texture of this cake reminds me of pineapple upside down cake. One of my favs. I cooked some fresh pineapple down with polyd and assorted sweetners and i'm thinking of using this instead of the cranberries, Just for a change cause i love the berries too. or maybe I'll use both crans and pineapple MMmmm